Cork stick with their winning formula

Cork will start Sunday's Munster hurling final in Thurles without a single alteration to the team that brushed past Clare in the semi-final.

Donal O'Grady last night announced the same line-up that recorded the 11-point win on June 8th, and having played out the game without introducing any substitutes, such a vote of confidence was expected.

Opponents' Waterford delayed the naming of their selection until after training this evening, with manager Justin McCarthy determined to give midfielder and captain Tony Browne every chance of recovering from his ankle injury.

While reports last week indicated that Browne had no chance of making the starting line-up, McCarthy hasn't yet given up hope. It is more likely that the position will be left vacant until Sunday morning, at which point Browne will undergo a final fitness test.

The injury occurred in the semi-final replay against Waterford on June 7th, and since then Browne has sat out all the Waterford training as the swollen tendons in the ankle area prohibit any running. He has, however, been maintaining as much fitness as possible in the swimming pool as well as getting laser treatment on the injury.

There are, however, no other major injury reports from the Waterford camp and the team is also expected to be largely unchanged from that which recorded the two-point win over Limerick.

Cork had no such injuries to report after their semi-final, although there were some brief concerns about corner back Diarmuid O'Sullivan who was ill for a period last week. But the Cloyne player has made a full recovery, and takes his place in the full back line that includes Pat Mulcahy, one of several standout players in the Clare game. The match itself is now certain to be a 53,000-sell out, with both Waterford and Cork distributing their entire ticket allocations.

In football, both Dublin and Derry will finalise their teams for Saturday's All-Ireland qualifier in Clones after training tomorrow evening. Dublin's injury problems have been well documented, although Paul Griffin should be sufficiently recovered from an ankle injury to be in contention for a place.

The Dublin County Board have received a ticket allocation of 20,000, well over half the Clones capacity of 35,000. The club allocations will be distributed today, with the remaining tickets going on sale to the public at Parnell Park from tomorrow and Friday. The advice from the county board to all travelling supporters is to leave early on Saturday because of Clones' notoriously bad traffic problems.

Elsewhere, Derry's longest serving hurler Oliver Collins has announced his retirement from the inter-county scene in the wake of the All-Ireland qualifier defeat to Kerry last weekend. Twice nominated for an All Star award, Collins made his senior back in 1992 and helped Derry to their breakthrough Ulster title in 2000, their first in 92 years, while also enjoying much success with his club Lavey.

Despite scoring 0-15 in the 2-15 to 1-16 defeat to the Kerry, Collins felt the time had come to allow younger players come through. He was, however, not only one of the finest hurlers Derry ever produced, but also one of the most talented players in the game.

Finally, the Dublin minor hurlers, who this evening play Kilkenny in the Leinster semi-final at Portlaoise, will be forced to line out without the injured Sean O'Sullivan, Keith Nolan and Graham Morris.

CORK (SH v Waterford): D Og Cusack; W Sherlock, P Mulcahy, D O'Sullivan; T Kenny, R Curran, Sean Og O hAilpin; J Gardiner, M O'Connell; B O'Connor, N McCarthy, T McCarthy; Setanta O hAilpin, J Deane, A Browne.

DUBLIN (MH v Kilkenny): A Nolan; D O'Reilly, C Billings, P Bergin; M Griffin, W Lowry, G O'Meara; R Higgins, D Walsh; E Moran, D Byrne, I Fleming; A McCrabbe, B Kennedy, P Carton.